'They're both gone': Mum, 45, celebrates double mastectomy

These are not the words you expect to hear from a woman who has just had both her breasts removed.

But four months after being diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 34 weeks pregnant, Elenor Tedenborg is celebrating her successful double mastectomy.

"They're both gone... It might sound bizarre (but) I'm actually really happy about that," the 45-year-old Sydney mother of two said in a Facebook Live video on Monday.

It's been a tough road for the former news photographer, who was diagnosed with breast cancer on November 24. She gave birth to her baby, Eli, less than two weeks later and then began chemotherapy 12 days after that.

When she was admitted to hospital this week for a single masectomy, Tedenborg asked her surgeon to remove both, fearing the cancer could come back.

She was told that removing both breasts would likely be too risky so soon after giving birth, as it posed a significant risk of blood loss. Her surgeon instead told her he would re-evaluate during surgery.

But, when she woke up, she was overjoyed to find both her breasts had been removed successfully.

Tedenborg told news.com.au she "couldn't have asked for a better result".

She added the illness had helped her accept her body which, she joked, "looks like a swimmer with a pot belly", referring to her post-baby body.

"I’ve lost my hair and I have no boobs but I’ve accepted my body for the first time in my life. By having everything stripped off, by losing things that I thought were me, it’s helped me learn to love myself more. I’ve found myself in a different way."

Tedenborg said she decided to share her story to help others and had already received an outpouring of support, which had "restored my faith in humanity".

She now has an anxious wait on the test results from the removed tissue, which she expects within the next week.

Whatever the result, she would share it with her growing social media following, she said.